The 1970s Project

My interest in the 1970s originates from my PhD thesis that deals with the transforming body. Focusing specifically on the treatment of the female body in horror films of the 1970s and its relationship with the rise of feminism in this era, the transformation process reveals the patriarchal perception of woman as dangerous. Close analysis of such films as The Beast Must Die (1974),The Beast in the Cellar (1970), Asylum (1974) and Frightmare (1974), reveal graphic and sexual images of transgressive and transforming bodies that address the cultural, social and sexual anxieties that were causing massive political upheaval and unrest during this period.

Analysis of these films illustrates further aspects of the preoccupation with female sexuality and female power and is a fascinating feature of 1970s British horror films that certainly merits in-depth research in order to reveal the underlying socio-political impulses and compulsions of 1970s culture.

Another area of interest is the relationship between the high camp of Are You Being Served, The Dick Emery Show and the Carry On… series of films and the soft porn that became prevalent in the 70s (even encompassing the Confessions Of…films). Again my focus is the body and how it is used in these contexts, but also how the body is dressed/undressed and the visual aesthetic that links the texts across different genres and different media. These texts address and confuse issues of gender, sexuality, feminism and censorship within a low-culture framework that is characteristically British in its nature. Although seemingly humorous and insignificant these visual examples of British culture disrupt and even challenge the fundamentally conservative establishment of the time.